1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of semiconductor manufacturing processes and devices, and more particularly, to methods of depositing silicon-containing films to form semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
As smaller transistors are manufactured, source/drain regions for sub-100 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices, such as silicon-containing metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) devices, are becoming more challenging to produce. Such MOSFET transistors may include p-channel MOS (PMOS) transistors, and n-channel MOS (NMOS) transistors. The PMOS transistor has a p-type source/drain region separated by an n-type channel (e.g., holes are responsible for conduction in the channel between the source/drain regions). The NMOS transistor has an n-type source/drain region separated by a p-type channel (e.g., electrons are responsible for conduction in the channel between the source/drain regions).
In NMOS applications, a source/drain region may be formed by etching a silicon substrate to make a recess that may be filled with a selectively grown silicon-containing layer, for example, a silicon-carbon layer, where carbon may be considered a lattice adjusting element used to adjust the lattice constant of the silicon lattice. The silicon-carbon layer is then doped with a dopant element to form the n-type source/drain region. Unfortunately, conventional processing techniques do not presently allow an epitaxial layer to be formed that incorporates silicon, a lattice adjusting element, and an n-type dopant element in a selectively grown layer that is single crystal.